Juventus - CBet, LKL playoff preview, 2021-05-12

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The LKL 2020/2021 season is coming to a climax with the playoffs starting this week, where the 4th place Juventus and the 5th place Prienai CBet will meet in the first round. We will briefly look at the two teams' path to this stage, the main pros and cons of each team and, as usual, share our match prediction.
Juventus Skučas

Juventus

Utena Juventus (23-13) finished the regular season in 4th place in the standings, just a hair behind 3rd place Panevėžys Lietkabelis. This season, it is quite evident that the top four teams are a head above the other four teams in the playoffs, as demonstrated by the win-loss ratio of Prienai CBet in 5th place (14-22).

Juventus had some injury problems during the season, and COVID-19 also had some problems, but Juventus finished the regular season in a dominant fashion: 97-86 win over Dzūkija, 112-94 crushing Šiauliai and 108-94 beating tomorrow's opponents, CBet. The results of the last games show that during the season Utena's team has been focusing more and more on offence and quick attacks than on defence, which is why the performances were so good. Utena has a lot of players with the highest level of experience, who individually are among the best position players in the LKL.

Juventus' front line (Kupšas, Čepukauskas, Skučas) is an enigma for most LKL teams, especially for Prienai CBet, whose front line is the weakest link of the team. Aurimas Urbonas shone in Juventus after Vaidas Kariniauskas dropped out of the lineup, and Bryan Crawford has returned to the lineup and has been able to warm up his legs. With Ignas Vaitkus, Martynas Gecevicius and Marius Runkauskas also in the line-up, Juventus looks like the clear favourites.

Lecomte CBet

CBet

Prienai CBet (14-22) finished the regular season in the highest position in the last few years, but the team's play in the last few weeks has been disappointing, with several crushing defeats and only 3 wins in the last 9 games played.

Prienai's leaders, E. Lecomte and D. Domarkas, are guards who rely on penetrating shots and three-pointers, and it will be difficult to penetrate against Juventus' strong front line. It's hard to imagine how Einaras Tubutis will stand up against Mindaugas Kupša, who has been dominating this season. Undoubtedly, the first thing Prien will have to do in order to win is to limit Juventus' fast play and not make childish mistakes and cherish the ball. Prienai CBet is one of the most mistake-prone teams in the LKL, and in the series against Juventus every mistake can be fatal.

Speaking about CBet, it is important to highlight the contribution of head coach Mantas Šernius to this team - Šernius, who is considered one of the best strategists in the LKL, led one of the weakest teams in the LKL to the playoffs, so it will be very interesting to see how he will manage to prepare the team for the season's most important fights.

Forecast

Utena Juventus and Prienai CBet have met 4 times this season, and Utena's team has won all 4 times. Both in terms of line-ups and in terms of the teams' form, it is quite obvious that Utena Juventus is currently on a roll and it will be very difficult to stop CBet. Juventus, which is more experienced, individually stronger and has maintained the core of the team for several seasons, should easily win the first game of the series at home.

Juventus -8,5, 1,9 kof., betsafe

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